Dozens arrested in NYC raids on Gambino mob family

NEW YORK -- The Gambinos were once a ruthless crime family whose empire stretched across the city and whose boss was a bona fide local celebrity, strutting around town in $2,000 suits and beating case after case.

Although their mystique faded over the years amid a series of convictions and damaging testimony from turncoat mobsters, they still maintained an intimidating presence in the underworld.

But the remnants of the once-fabled Gambinos had their knees taken out from under them Thursday.

Authorities carried out one of the largest Mafia takedowns in recent memory, scooping up dozens of reputed Gambino members and charging them with gangland crimes spanning three decades -- including the brutal slaying of a court officer and extortion at a failed NASCAR track.

A federal indictment in Brooklyn named 62 people, including the three highest-ranking members of the Gambino clan and the brother and nephew of the late John Gotti, the notorious boss who ran the family in its heyday. State prosecutors separately charged 26 others with running a gambling ring that took nearly $10 million in bets on professional and college sports.

The New York raids coincided with an Italian operation, code-named "Old Bridge" and centered on the Sicilian capital of Palermo, targeting Mafia figures who were strengthening contacts between mob groups in Italy and the United States.

Authorities said the investigations, though technically unconnected, signaled an international attempt to disrupt Sicilian ties to the Gambino family, which has been decimated by prosecutions since Gotti's fall.

The U.S. investigation ensnared whatever members of the Gambino hierarchy were still at liberty and will bring "closure to crimes from the past," federal prosecutor Benton Campbell said, including drug trafficking, robberies and other crimes dating to the 1970s.

The probe's scope shows the mob "still exists in the city and the state of New York," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. "We like to think that it's a vestige of the past. It's not."

Most of the suspects were in custody following a series of raids Thursday, including the reputed acting boss of the Gambino family, John "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico, who is accused of playing a lead role in a broad racketeering conspiracy. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Joseph Corozzo, accused of being a high-level Gambino adviser, pleaded not guilty to multiple racketeering counts including cocaine trafficking.

"He's never been involved in drugs," his attorney and son, Joseph Corozzo Jr., said outside court.

Among the 29 people arrested or sought in Italy were members of clans linked to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the Sicilian Mafia boss arrested in November, Italian officials said.

"We have cut short a dangerous connection that would have been the basis for new illegal trafficking," Palermo Prosecutor Francesco Messineo said.